A basement is a wonderful part of your home where you can burrow and free yourself from noise and other distractions as you spend your time alone, meditating, or just relaxing.
A basement can also serve as a storage place for some items.
However, you may find the basement very uncomfortable, especially during the cold winter season when everything tends to freeze.
How Can You Prevent Your Basement From Freezing?
To keep your basement from freezing, you need to find ways of keeping it warm throughout the winter season. An adequate supply of hot air and warmth into the basement can help keep it free from freezing. You can use thermostats, space heaters, baseboard heaters, fireplaces, heat vents, additional insulation, carpets, and other house warming equipment or systems to keep your basement more comfortable in winter.
See Also: How Much Does It Cost To Add A Basement To A Mobile Home?
While working to resolve the issue of freezing, it is imperative to identify the possible causes of basement freezing before deciding which method to use to keep it warm.
Precisely, every heating technique has its pros and cons in terms of cost and installation process.
If you wish to continue enjoying your time in the basement during winter, you have to keep it at optimal temperature.
Keep reading to find out the causes of freezing in the basement and how to keep your basement free from freezing.
Three Freezing Cold Basement Causes
1. Ground Chilly Conditions
The underground is naturally cooler than the upper surface.
Since a more significant part of the basement is attached to the underground, it traps and circulates cold air in the entire basement.
When there is snowfall, the underground freezes too, which can cause the basement to freeze.
2. Moisture Build-up
The basement maintains a lot of moisture than most parts of the house.
The excess moisture makes the air circulating in it feel damp and cool. In winter, there will be too much moisture which can easily change to ice because of the cold outside conditions.
If this happens, you will find several ice particles on the basement floor, walls, or even on the items stored inside the basement.
3. Heat Rises
Scientifically, warm air rises fast, leaving the lower parts colder.
Since the basement is the lowest space of a home, it will most likely remain colder as its heat rises to the upper parts of the house.
In winter, the basement gets even colder and can quickly freeze.
Eight Basement Warming Methods
Basements provide space for storage, installation of the HVAC system, and recreation and help build a modicum of heat generated as thermal mass.
If your basement has open spaces that let in cold air from outside contributes greatly to increased heating bills, poor air quality, and land increases the risk of health issues.
To be safe and maintain basement temperatures, here are some if they feel actions you can take to protect your basement from freezing in winter and fall.
1. Add Insulation
Having a nice carpet on the basement floor may not be enough to provide adequate warmth, especially if the walls are made of cider.
Insulating the walls can serve you greatly, especially if you plan to make the basement and additional living space.
You can also use spray foam to insulate the basement walls and make them free from the cold, freezing air.
If you are new in the market and seek to buy basement insulators, choose those with an R-value of 10 to 19. They are of the right thickness for basement insulation.
For the cinder block walls, you can frame them to make the basement appear beautiful also.
Make sure the insulation job is correctly done to save you from extra heating bills.
2. Replace Old Carpets
Most carpets are fibers that release heat slower than concrete slabs or tiles.
Adding carpet on your basement floor or simply laying thick floor rugs can help keep the basement warm and free from freezing caused by extremely cold conditions.
Before purchasing a carpet for the basement, consider whether there are leaks or flooding problems.
If there are, you will have to fix them first.
3. Replace Windows And Doors?
For instance, if you are framing the basement walls, you can use that chance to replace windows and doors with the most recent double panned energy-efficient versions.
You can also add thermal curtains on the windows and exterior basement doors, especially in winter, to help in thermal heat retention.
4. Space Heaters
Using space heaters is the fastest way of warming up the basement.
However, space heaters are risky and have a very high potential of starting up a fire.
If the space heaters have individual thermostats and temperature regulation mechanisms, they can operate overnight.
It is advisable to use portable industrial space heaters for basements as they can be moved around but still give the most significant and most impressive heat output.
5. Keep Furnace On
You can turn off the air conditioning units but keep warm air running through the basement by leaving the furnace on ON mode.
However, this method can only work effectively if you have installed the furnace to blow heat to the basement and not upstairs.
This will force the cold air to move upwards, leaving the lower basement air hot and free from freezing
6. Use Fireplaces
A fireplace in the basement can be a practical and cozy addition to your space.
Whether you opt for the traditional wood-burning fireplace, gas fireplace, or fireplace inserts.
Even though wood-burning fireplaces can be challenging to install in a basement, they can serve quite well if installed with a qualified technician.
The gas fireplace is the most effective and simple to use alternative. Make sure to use vented gas Burning products to safeguard your vent from increased humidity.
7. Install Baseboard Heaters
The baseboard heaters provide an affordable heating solution for your basement. It dramatically supplements the existing basement heating system in most new homes.
The most significant advantage of baseboard heaters is that you can direct heat in just one place where it is needed.
You can also control individual baseboard heaters with separate thermostats.
8. Install Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are not only designed to keep air cool; they can as well keep the air warm. For warm air, turn the fan blades clockwise.
This keeps the warm air at the bottom of the room and also dries up moisture that could have accumulated in the basement.
Even though this trick will not heat the entire basement, it helps increase the warmth within the basement space.
Conclusion
The basement is the coldest place in your home, and it might seem hard to keep it from freezing.
However, understanding the causes of basement freezing can help you devise ways of mitigating the extreme cold air and freezing.
You can use insulation, keep the furnace on 24/7, use space heaters or any other method mentioned in the above article and keep your basement comfortable with warm air even during the cold winter season.
Sources
https://www.victorianfireplaceshop.com/fireplace-for-basement-heating-options
